US 2nd Armored Division

The 2nd Armored Division was an armored division of the US Army that was active from 1940 to 1995. The division was formed at Fort Benning, Georgia on 15 July 1940, and George S. Patton played a major role in training the division. On 8 November 1942, the division was landed at Casablanca as a part of Operation Torch during World War II, and the division later took part in Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily) in July 1943. In August 1943, the division was sent to England to prepare for the invasion of Europe, and it landed in Normandy on 9 June 1944 during Operation Overlord. The division encircled the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Goetz von Berlichingen at Roncey in the Cotentin Peninsula during Operation Cobra and inflicted heavy losses on them, and the division blunted the German attack on Avranches before racing across France with the rest of the US Third Army. It reached the Albert Canal in Belgium on 8 September 1944, crossed the German border near Sittard on 18 September 1944 before taking up defensive positions near Geilenkirchen, before taking Julich on 28 November 1944 during its assault on the Siegfried Line. The division was holding positions on the Roer when it was ordered to help contain the German Ardennes offensive during the Battle of the Bulge, clearing the area from Houffalize to the Ourthe River of the enemy. At Celles, the 2nd Armored Division and the British 29th Armored Brigade destroyed the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich's broken-down tanks. On 27 March 1945, after resting for a month, the division broke out across the Rhine and reached the Elbe at Schonebeck on 11 April 1945, the first American division to do so. It halted on 20 April, and it entered Berlin in July, the first American unit to enter the German capital. The division had suffered 981 dead, 4,557 wounded, 60 missing, and 266 captured during the war, while it took 94,151 prisoners-of-war, liberated 22,538 Allied prisoners-of-war, and destroyed 266 enemy aircraft.